Adjustable or self-regulating propeller



E.WESNIGK.

ADJUSTABLE 0R SELF REGULATING PROPELLER. APPLICATION FILED mm: 29. 1920. 1 ,425,922, Patented Aug. 15, 1922.

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ADJUSTABLE 0R SELF REGULATING PROPELLER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE- 29, I920.

1 425 922 Patented Aug. 15, 1922.

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' E. WESNIGK.

ADJUSTABLE 0R SELF REGULATING PROPELLER. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29, I920.

ERWIN WESNIG-K, OF BERLIN, GERMANY.

ADJUSTABLE OR SELF-REGULATING PROPELLER.

Application filed June 29,

(GRANTED UNDER THE BROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1921,41 STAT. L, 1318.)

T c all whom it 77/L concern:

Be it known that I, ERWIN WESNIGK, a

'citizen of Germany, and a resident of Berlin,

Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adjustable or Self- Regulating Propellers, of which the following is a specification, and for which patents have been granted in Germany, Nos. 326213,

. needed for transmitting the considerable adfiled20th April, 1918, and 32777 8, filed 27th August, 1918, in the name of my assignees,

the ,Helix Propeller Gesellscha ft, Berlin,

Germany, Blucherstrasse No. 1; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the invention,

such as will enable others skilled in the art to-which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had-t0 the accompanying drawings, and to the letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. p

The invention relates to improvements in adjusting devices of pro eller blades, especially for air service- Sommonly the adjustment movements are effected from-some the device, whilst the accommodation of the adjusting device in the interior of a hollow oropeller shaft is only possible in connection with the use of an intermediate ear between the motor and a propeller s aft -freely accessible from its end opposite'to the propeller.

' The invention consists in using as foundation for the parts exerting the adjusting forces not a rigid part of the machine frame but the air, by providing at the propeller an arrangement of two or more auxiliary blades constructed to act as an air turbine or as braking blades and connected to any propeller blade adjusting device mounted in the axis of the propeller in such a manner that the said arrangement is adapted to drive the adjusting device with a greater orsmaller number of revolutions than the number ofmevolutions of the propeller shaft. 'T hereby the propeller blades are rotated at their respective shafts in the one or the other direction so as td increase or to diminish the pitch of the propeller blades.

The advantage of this arrangement consists therein, that no transmission means are justing forces from a stationary part to the rotating propeller, these forces being generated immediately in the auxiliary arrangement or air servomotor mounted at the rotating parts of the propeller.

A further feature of the invention con;

, sists in the regulationfof the air servomotor by a centrifugal regulator rotating with the propeller and connected to the gear of the air servomotor, so as to put it into ac-- tion inthe case the number of revolutions of the propeller shaft is too great or too small, for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the pitch of the propeller and the force needed for the rotation of said propeller; thereby it' is attained that the number, of revolutions of the propeller re "member influenced by the air pressure may be provided in addition to or in place of a centrifugal regulator.

The invention further relates to several.

improvements in the details of construction of the air servomotor, the regulator, the

in the accomin section, of one form of construction of the propeller 4: is a tion section, a frontal view and an upper view of a second form of the propeller Fig. 8 is a specialview of'the regulator and its gearing on alarger scale Fig. 9 is a side view partly in sect1on,.of

. 5, 6 and 7 are a side view, partly in] I frontal view of thehub pora third form of construction, in which the asleeve 2,-in the interior of which may be placed the nut fastening the propeller hub at the motor shaft, and its accessories. The

huh I is constructed in one piece with two parallel planes 3 on which the propeller blades abut. The centrifugal forces of the blades are'sustained by bolts 4 which are surrounded between the planes 3 by stiflening tubes 5 and extend beyond the planes 3 through distance tubes 6 and to annular bodies 7. In these annular bodies 7 ball bearings 8 are enclosed by which are surrounded and sustained iron blade sleeves 9.

-. wedges.

The said blade sleeves 9 are centrall guided.

at the hub planes 3 by circular guide faces and support the blades 10 which are inserted in them with cylindrical base parts.

The insertion of the wooden blades 10 in the sleeves 9 is efiected as follows. The base parts of the blade are primarily armoured with a ring 11 shrunk on each base part for the purpose of obviating destruction by splitting the wood; then the base parts are turned cylindrically and milled in the interior to get'the annular slot 12 (or several such slots in concentric arrangement) and a central "bore 13. .Thereupon wedge shaped bodies 14:, '15 are inserted the inmost of which is secured by a screw 16 screwed into the wood. The annular wedge 15 is extend: ing in form of ribs 17 into the radial slots of the wood splitted by driving in the p In this state the blade base is turned'to a shape corresponding to the interior shape of the blade sleeve 9. Thereupon the wedges 14, 15 are drawn out, the blade base is inserted into the sleeve 9 and the wedges are again inserted and secured bythescrew 16.

' 1 For, the purpose of adjusting orrotating thelblades there are provided conical toothed gea'r'wheel segments 18 'at thesleeves 9, andthe said segments18 are meshing with a conical tcothed gear wheel 19 rotatably mounted at the above mentioned hub sleeve 2. The conicalwheel 19 is connected by a tube or sleeve to the hub 20 of a little adjustable auxiliary propeller serving as a propeller hub 20 with two screw blades" 22;- by"'aid of bearing nuts 23, coniv pallyinserted. into the blades. Sleeves 24 a are; shrunk on the base parts of the wooden I T blades and said sleeves 24 are rovidedgwithteeth, with which are meshmg toothedrods 25 of 'aslide26, which said slide, by the aid of a, thrust bearing 27 con structed as a ball bearing, is connected to a regulator sleeve 28; The regulator consists. in two flat springs 29 attached at one end to two of the above mentioned bolts 4: respectively and at the other end to the regulator sleeve 28 and provided in their middle parts with centrifugal blocks 30. f

The operation is as follows.- When the. propeller is in rotation the; centrifugal blocks 30 assume a certain medium position under the influences of the centrifugal force and the springs 29. The regulator sleeve 28 at this position of the parts is advanced as far as to hold by the toothed rods 25 the auxiliary blades in a medium position adapted to cause the auxiliary propeller to revolve under theinfiuence of the air current generated by the main blades 10 with the same number of revolutions as the main propeller. Thereby no relative displacement is caused between the rotating parts and the propeller is uniformly running. If for some reasons the propeller assumes a too fast r0- tation the sleeve 28 is approached by the regulator to the hub portion 1, 3 and the auxiliary bladesare thereby adjusted to assume a greaterpitch with the result that the auxiliary propeller revolves less fast than the maln propeller, and the relative dis placement between the auxiliary propeller hub .20 and the gear wheel 19 connected theretoefi'ects that by the aid of the toothed segments 18 the blades 10.are adjusted to assume a greater pitch; the propeller then consumes a greater amount of force, so that the motor'is running more slowly and gets again its normal number of revolution s. If in the reverse case'the motor begins to run too slowly, all motions are caused in the inverse sense, with the result that again the normal number of revolutions is reached, provided that the motor is in good working order.

Referring now to the second form of construction igs. 5-8) the hub parts 1 to 17 are constructed in the same manner as at the above described form, and are indicated by the same" reference numerals;

The blade sleeves 9 are here fitted with worm wheels 31 meshing with worms 32,

- the shafts 33 of which are provided with a toothed wheel 34 each. The said toothed wheels may-be replaced by frictional wheels and are meshing with a central wheel 35 rotatably mounted on the sleeve 2. The central gear wheel 35 is driven by-a second central wheel 36 braking blades 37, 1n the followin manner.

A transmitting gear wheel 38, an two fur-- ther transmittin gear wheels 39, 40 meshing with each oter, are mounted at a slide 41 in such amanner that at one end position of said slide the one transmitting wheel 38 meshes with the two central wheels 35,

provided. with two fiat a 36 thereby causing them to move in the same 10 moved by a centrifugal regulator to and fro between its end positions. The regulator comprises a sleeve or collar 43 to which are linkedv centrifugal blocks 44 provided each with a tooth 45 engaging the sleeve 2 in such a manner that the blocks 44 at moving about their links cause the colla'r' 43 to rotate about the sleeve 2. .A pin'46 extending from the collar 43 into a slotted portion 47 of the slide serves to transform the rotating movements of the collar 43 into the above mentioned longitudinal 'sliding movements of the slide 41, and to bring thereby into engagement with the central wheels 35, 36 the transmitting wheels 38, or 39, 40 respectively, or .to hold said wheels out of engagement.

The force driving the regulator blocks 44 towards the "axis of the propeller is'furnished by a spiral spring 44, the one end I of which is attached to the collar'43, and

the other end to a collar 45 rigidly connected to the sleeve2. The said collar 45, instead of being rigidly connected to the sleeve 2, may be mounted thereon rotatably and may be influenced by a gear so as to be rotated at the will of the operator, in order to change the tension of the spiral spring 44- and thereby change the normal number of revolutions to be assumed by the motor andpropeller, K 1

The operation of this form of execution is as follows. If the motor is running with normal speed the transmitting wheels 38 and 39, 40 are not in engagement with the central wheels 35, 36,and the auxiliary blades 37 as well as the wheel 36 rest without any substantialrotation, whilst the wheel 35 is rotated synchronously with the propeller without influencing in any way the blades 10, the latter being held in position by\ the automatic blockingeffectiveness of the worm gears 31, 32. If the number of revolutions of the propeller grows too great or too the. other direction, and thereby the; collar ,43 is rotated in the respective direction, so

small, the" centrifugal blocks 44 are swung out of their medium position into one or as to move the slide 41 in therespective direction and to get the transmitting wheels 38 or 39, 40 respectively into engagement with the central wheels 35, 36. The auxiliary blade 37 thereby is coupled to the adjustment gear so as-to be rotated with a certainspeed in equal sense with the propeller. but exert a rotating force upon the adjusting gear in the one or the other sense and thereby adjustingthe blades 10 in the manner described. at the first formof execut1on.

The operation of the above mentioned adjusting device of the regulator spring 44' is the following- If for instance the operator releases the tension of the said spring the centrifugal blocks 44 will overcome the force of the spring in the same manner as if the propeller were running too fast. The auxiliary blade arrangement is thereby caused to increase the pitch of the main blades 10, and a smaller number of revolutions is attained. If the operator does still more release. the tension of the spring,'there is coming a point in which the pitch of the blades is the greatest possible, and a further shifting of the blades in the same direction effects a reverse thrust of the propeller; provided that the motor is sufliciently powerful to run under these conditions, is obtained in this manner the reversibility of the pro peller. The method of again adjusting the propeller to the prior state then' consists in again giving the regulator spring a stronger tension, whereupon all movements will proceed in the inverse direction and normal working of the propeller will be obtained.

The dimensions of the auxiliary blade 37 may be chosen without difficulty so as to exert a sufficient adjusting force for quickly adjusting the blades 10, whilst on the other hand the force exerted should be sufficiently great only at a relatively great speed of the auxiliary blade in order to avoid a too hard engagement of the gear wheels.

- Referring to the third form of construe tion (Fig. '9) the essential features of the propeller and the gear correspond to those 'of the second form of execution, with the j exception that instead of the auxiliary blade 37 at the hub of the central wheel 36 there is arranged a sheet metal cap 49 shaped like the usual propeller caps and provided with a removable cover 50 in its fore part,

and completed. at. its back portion by a ring 51 held b struts 52 mounted at the rigid parts of t e propeller hub.

The rotatable cap 49 is provided at its outer surface with four or six sheet metal ribs 53 which act as braking blades, i. e.-

cause the cap to stand still or to rotate only more slowly'than'the propeller. Thereby the same effect is attained as at the second form of execution of the auxiliary blades.

The ribs 53 may be arranged partly in the form. of-"screws with a pitch ascending in, I

- the sense of the revolution of a watch hand and partly in the form of screws with reverse pitch. ,By alternately laying flat, or

. pulling into the interior of the cap, the one or the other set of the said ribs may be got out of action, so as to perform the same mode of action as described in connection with the adjustable auxiliary blades 22 of the first named form of excution as above mentioned.

In the third form of execution are further-' more arranged in a cap 49 two gyroscopes 54 provided with conical gear wheels 55 meshing with a gear wheel 56 fitted to the hub of the'propeller. As the cap is resting without rotation, or at least is rotated less avoided, the cap being arrested against ro tation only by the gyroscopes. The respective axis of the propeller'blades may be arranged with a pronation and with an eccentrical position in relation to the propeller shaft axis in order to diminish the stresses exerted on the shifting bearings of the blades 10 in a lmown manner without interfering withthe invention.

Having nowparticularly described my invention, what I claim as new and. desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In screw propellers the combination with propeller blades rotatably mounted at a hu of an auxiliary blade rotatably mounted at the said hub and means for transmitting the rotating movements of said auxiliary blade onto the rotatably mounted V propeller blades.

2. In screw propellers the combinatio with propeller blades rotatably mounted at a hub, of an auxiliary screw propeller blade,

rotatably mounted at-the said hub and adapted to be adjusted to various screw pitches and 'means for transmitting the rotating movements of said auxiliary blade onto the rotatablymounted propeller blades. In screw propellers the combination with propeller blades rotatably mounted at v 'a hub,"of auxiliary blades mounted at said hub and only acting'as braking blades and means for transmitting the rotating movemerits of said brakingblades onto the rotatably mountedpropeller blades.

4-111. screw pro with propeller bla es rotatably mounted at 'a hub, of auxiliaryblades mounted at the said and onlyacting as braking blades,

gear 55, 56.

iliary blade Here the :combination I means for transmitting the rotating movements of said braking blades onto the rotatably mounted propeller blades, and means for changing the sense of rotation of the propeller blades in relation to the sense of rotation ofthe auxiliary blade arrangement.

5. In screw propellersthe combination with propeller blades rotatably mounted at a hub, an auxiliary blade device rotatably -mounted at said hub and means for transmitting the rotating movements ofsaid auxdevice onto the propeller, blades, of a regulatin device adapted to automatically change t e pitch of saidaux iliary blade device or the gearing connecting the said rotatable auxiliary blade device to the rotatably mounted propeller blades.

6. In screw propellers the combination withpropeller blades rotatably mounted at a hub,'an auxiliary blade device rotatably mounted at said hub and means for transmitting the rotating movement of said auxiliary blade device onto the propeller blades, and a regulating device adapted to automatically adjust the propeller blades by the aid of said auxiliary blade device, of a spring balancing-the force of the regulator,

and means for adjusting the tension of the said spring bythe hand of the operator.

7. In screw propellers the combination with-propeller blades rotatably mounted at a hub, of an auxiliary blade device rotatably mounted at the said hub and means for transmitting the rotating movements of said auxiliary blade device onto the rota tably mounted propeller blades, of a cap enclosing the said means and provided at its outer surface with ribs adapted to act as the said auxiliary blade.

8. In screw propellers thecombination with propeller bladesrotatably mounted at a, hub, of one or more gyroscopes mounted at a body rotatably attached to the said hub, means for driving the said gyroscopes, and means for transmitting the rotating movements of the said body. onto the rotatably mounted propeller blades.

'In testimony that I claim the foregoing as myinvention I have signed my name in presence of two-subscribin witnesses.

I Witnesses: U'r'ro GALL.

MARIA-Smear,

ERWI WEsNieKf. 

